


Ravelled Sleeves

by PepperCat



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Axel can't stop getting in fights, Cuddling, Hartley can't stop working, Late at Night, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sleepy Cuddles, aftermath of canon-typical violence, it's a balance really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 14:10:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8059345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperCat/pseuds/PepperCat
Summary: A slice-of-life fluff piece initially posted on Tumblr, prompted (loosely!) by a discussion with @eh2zie365.In which Hartley is entirely capable of taking care of things that he thinks are practical, rather lost with things that aren't, and would probably be just as confused by Axel if he wasn’t exhausted.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Hartley had a new hypothesis. Axel didn’t go thrift shopping because he liked the odds of finding interesting clothes. He went thrift shopping because it tended to be cheaper, and garments which touched the skin of Axel Walker were lucky if they could then measure their life in weeks before they were shot, sliced, or shredded. All of which seemed to involve Axel bleeding on them to one degree or another.

The fact that he bothered to put effort into redesigning them before that happened was just another thing Hartley thought he wasn’t ever going to understand.

“You’re welcome,” he said, putting away the first aid kit. Axel watched him with amusement, and Hartley realized he’d taken the toothpaste off the edge of the sink and tucked it in with the bandages. He didn’t even colour at the mistake, just corrected it and kept tidying.

“So did you take a break before I came home or did you pull an all-nighter again?”

Hartley made a dismissive humming noise as he stepped back to take a look at the bandages on Axel’s back and shoulder. He didn’t think he’d missed anything, it had just been a long enough day that he’d wanted to double-check. “You should lie down,” he said, stifling a yawn. It had been morning when he’d started the day’s work; it hadn’t been raining. The rain had started after midnight.

By the time Axel had staggered in and interrupted to ask for help bandaging the spots he couldn’t reach himself, it had been raining for hours.

“Yeah, _I_ should lie down.”

“We’re in agreement.” Hartley said, and everything was clean enough that he didn’t have to worry, so when Axel took his hand and crossed the hallway from the bathroom to Axel’s bedroom he just followed, blinking down at Axel sitting on the bed and wondering how long it’d take to finish taking care of him and go back to what he’d been doing. It’d been– dammit. Tip of his tongue.

“Take off your glasses.”

“Solenoids,” Hartley said, remembering–and then, catching up with the conversation, “I’m using them.”

“C'mere.” Axel lay back and pulled on his wrist, and between the length of time Hartley’d been working and the general stress of seeing Axel bleeding–even if not too badly–he was tired, but not tired enough to really object. He climbed onto the bed, settled down face-to-face with his mattress-side hand on Axel’s shoulder and his other arm lying across Axel’s side. Axel looped one arm over Hartley and Hartley didn’t sigh, exactly, but started running his hand lightly up Axel’s back, tracing fingertips over bare skin.

“Don’t,” Axel said. “You’re so wiped you’d fall asleep halfway.”

“I am not.” The plausibility of the denial, he felt, was undermined by the yawn that followed it. Axel snickered a little and managed to get his other arm under Hartley, folded them around his back and pulled him close.

“Don’t,” he said in Hartley’s ear, breath warm, and Hartley shivered a little. “C'mon, Pipes. I’m sore and you’re tired.”

Alright, he supposed, but he was confused. “Why did you…” He couldn’t think of the words, waved one hand in a circle (for all the good it did to the conversation, said hand being behind Axel’s back), and then let it fall. Axel’s back was smooth under his hand, and he smelled of warm skin and antiseptic and a little bit of hair gel. It was an odd combination but Hartley found he didn’t mind. Axel’s hair gel smelled like blue raspberry candy without the sweetness, he thought.

Axel had moved one hand off his back, was stroking his hair. It was a silky feeling, a slow luxurious drag, and Hartley realized he’d closed his eyes, was listening to the sound of Axel's fingers instead of finishing his question.

“What’re you doing?” Not that it was bad, it felt nice, but he was missing the reason behind it. That happened sometimes, Axel off on a whim that didn’t hurt anyone, it just…

Axel shrugged against him, and everything fit together a little better when the motion was over. “You don’t mind, right?”

Hartley thought of pointing out that Axel was _petting_ him, the way he’d pet one of his rats, and couldn’t quite summon the indignation that seemed to deserve. “No, but…” It was harder to concentrate with his eyes closed right now, although that wasn’t usually how it worked, and his breathing and Axel’s seemed to be blurring together. He was sure he _could_ pick out the differences if he tried, but it didn’t seem important enough right now.

Axel stopped running one hand over his hair for a moment, and was pulling his glasses up and off, very gently, and then there was the purr of a blanket being dragged across them both. He felt warmer, although hard to tell if that was the blanket or just the idea of the warmth from Axel’s skin, and Hartley settled closer against him.

Hand in his hair, sound like the rush of rain against the window.

“When do I need to go?” Important to know. You couldn’t just… keep on…

“S'okay, Pipes.” From a great distance. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You make _no_ sense,” Hartley thought of saying, and somewhere in the middle of that he fell asleep.


End file.
